


Mother's Day

by whatTheFuckIsThis



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-07
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-10-06 00:21:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17335160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatTheFuckIsThis/pseuds/whatTheFuckIsThis
Summary: It's the first Mother's Day since Zari's mother died and she's having a rough time. Charlie tries to help her.





	Mother's Day

Charlie was having a good day. After spending months with the Legends, Sara had finally let her stay on the ship while everyone else went out on a mission. With no one else on the ship to complain, she was blasting it full volume from her phone. Gideon had finally found the original live version of her favorite Cockney Rejects song and despite Gideon’s claim that it was the worst song she’d ever been asked to process, Charlie was now happily singing along to it as she walked into the kitchen.

“Gotta break out find something else to do. I can’t stand being stuck in here with you. Gonna have a laugh. Gonna break into a store. I’m so bored that- Ah!” She yelled, startled by someone sitting at the main dining table. After her initial shock she realized it was Zari at the table and muted her music.

“Hey, Z. What’s up? I thought you were headed out with the others to catch the fugitive of the week.”

Zari glared at Charlie but the wet tears on her face made the expression look more sad than scary. Even more concerning was the untouched plate of food in front of her.     

“Zari, hey. What’s wrong?” Charlie asked, moving to sit down next to the other woman.

Zari stared at her for a few seconds before wiping the tears off her face and clearing her throat.

“Today is Mother’s Day.”

Charlie tilted her head in confusion. She knew about mothers but she’d never heard of a day for them.

“Sorry, some of this Earth stuff is still new to me. What’s Mother’s Day? Is that like-”  

“It’s a day when kids give their moms presents and call them to say thank you for being good a good mother or something like that.” 

Charlie nodded like she understood. In different circumstances she would ask more about this weird custom, but Zari didn’t seem eager to answer any more of her questions.

“It’s-It’s stupid,” Zari laughed. “I never even cared much about the stupid holiday when she was…”

Her voice caught in her throat as tears started rolling down her cheeks.

Charlie placed her hand on top of Zari’s, almost without thinking. Her other hand moved to wipe the tears from Zari’s cheeks, but Charlie stopped herself. This wasn’t the time to test how close they’d gotten over the past few months.

After a few minutes with only the sound of Zari sniffling and the faint hum of the refrigerator filling the room, Zari continued.   

“We never did much to celebrate Mother’s day. When I was seven, my dad went all out. Cooked a three course breakfast. Called in sick to work for her. Gave her a pedicure. Took her shopping for new clothes. He said he wanted her to feel like the queen he always knew she was meant to be. She hated it so much,” Zari smiled at the memory, struggling to hold back the new round of tears. “Every year after that my dad was banned from doing anything on Mother’s day and instead my brother and I would cook her breakfast. We’d always make this.”

Zari pointed at the food in front of her.

“Noon-e barbari. Honey. Adasi. Fried eggs. Tea. And persimmons. She loved persimmons. She’d eat three every morning and then a couple more throughout the day. I swear she would’ve lived on this fruit if she could’ve. I’ve never liked them very much.”

“Is your mother-”

“Dead? Yeah. Her and the rest of my family are gone. Dead.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t-”

“How could you have known? I’m not exactly the most open person. The rest of the team only knows because they were with me day they- the day it happened.”

“Ray told me about that mission. He said your family was missing but I didn’t realize-”

“Reliable death records are hard to come by in my time but Gideon found proof that they- that they died. I did a DNA test of their ashes myself.” 

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. Time wants to happen,” Zari sighed. “Not even you could have prevented this.”  

Charlie sat there in silence, unsure of what to do. She knew a lot about what do when someone was angry but sadness was one emotion that still confused her. Not wanting to stay quiet, she started talking about the first thing that popped into her mind.

“Never really had a mother myself. Not really,” Charlie began, pulling her hand away from Zari to cross her arms. “I was one of hundreds of kids. None of us knew our parents. The bastards left us to fend for ourselves in a wasteland of a dimension. We tore each other apart just to survive.”

Charlie paused to look at Zari. She had stopped crying but the look of pity on her face was almost worse.   

“It wasn’t all bad-”

“It sounds pretty bad,” Zari pointed out.

Charlie smiled slightly and let out a small laugh. 

“I guess seeing your siblings literally tearing eachother apart for millennia isn’t the best introduction into the world. But some of them were nice. Grace the Griffin never tried to kill me even after I stole her last scrap of food. Peggy the Pegasus even protected me from some of the others after I stopped the gnomes from stealing her horn. Oh and Ghoulie the Ghoul… No, wait, he did try to kill me. What a twat.”

Zari burst out laughing.

“Something funny, Z?” Charlie chided. Despite her harsh tone, Charlie was smiling. She was glad the other woman was starting to cheer up.

“Yeah, your siblings sound like they were named by toddlers.”

“Hey! I’ll have you know I was well into my first hundred by the time I named Ghoulie.”

“You named them all? And you couldn’t come up with anything better for a Ghoul than Ghoulie?”

“You try making up a language when you’ve never heard anyone speak! At least I didn’t stick with a bunch of neighing sounds like Peggie or squawks like Grace. Those two were the bloody worst to get in a screaming match with. At least the zombies just groaned.”

Zari smiled and shook her head.

“And I thought my life was weird,” she muttered.

“Oh your life is plenty weird, Z. You turned into a talking cat and you can bend air with your mind. That shit is straight out of a TV show.”

“Yeah, I guess our lives are both pretty weird.”      

“They are, but I’m glad you’re part of mine,” Charlie admitted.

Charlie got up quickly and cleared her throat. She reached for her phone and started cranking up the volume a deafening level.

“Right, then. I’ll leave you to your celebration,” Charlie said, turning to leave the kitchen as the first notes of the song rang out.  

“Wait,” Zari said, standing up and grabbing Charlie’s jacket to stop her from leaving. “Can you-Would you mind staying with me? I just- This is the first year I’ll be eating this meal without my mother and I’d really prefer not to do it alone.”

Charlie smiled and nodded.

“Great. But that music has to go. It’s the worst thing I’ve ever heard and I had a two year long ska phase.”

“What?!”

“Turn it off or I’ll tell everyone that you named a ghoul Ghoulie!”

Charlie sighed but accepted the conditions, taking her seat beside Zari.

“Thank you,” Zari whispered, handing Charlie the least ripe persimmons she could find.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments are appreciated.
> 
> Please (constructively) drag me in the comments. I love growth.


End file.
